


Memories Fade But Love Stays

by pietromavximoff



Category: Captain America, Marvel, Stucky - Fandom
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 04:48:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5484011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pietromavximoff/pseuds/pietromavximoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve and Bucky have a Christmas party ft. drunk Avengers and marriage proposals</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories Fade But Love Stays

**Author's Note:**

> I just wanted to thank whoever it was who made that stucky fanart on tumblr, I got the title from that, so thankyou!!

Steve could always remember Christmas with Bucky. He thought the first Christmas he had after he woke up would be the worst of them all. All of the noise of New York couldn’t dull the feeling of his heart aching to be back seventy years, in their tiny apartment, watching crappy holiday movies and burning cookies in a cramped kitchen. But the Christmases that followed were much worse, because he could feel himself forgetting the little things that had hardly mattered then, that were all he had to hold onto now. His head pounded when he thought about the times they’d kissed in a back alley somewhere, carols carrying through the open windows of the cafe nearby as Steve tried to still the shaking of his hands as they reached to unbutton Bucky’s uniform, feeling Bucky’s teeth bite down on his lips in eagerness.   
Now his hands were still and his lips were cold, but his heart was pounding with memories that were fading. He had wished, the next Christmas, looking up to the twinkling lights on the buildings outside his window, just one thing that would make it all bearable. He’d go through the pain of not having Bucky, as long as he could relive their moments, whenever he liked. There was something about seeing Peggy now that broke his heart, her once red lips lined with words never said, her hands worn by the things she’d have to do herself when she had no-one else, her eyes looking at him and seeing a stranger. He whispered his wish to the golden lights that night, thinking that if Bucky were there, he would be hanging them around their apartment so it could glow. ‘I don’t want to forget you.’

Christmas with Bucky was different now, because it came with Christmas with everyone else. Sam had come over early to help set up the music, and Nat had arrived around midday, a nervous wreck.  
‘Tony told Bruce, and Bruce told Thor, and Thor was telling Maria and I heard my name and then they said it,’ she explained, taking in a deep breath as Sam handed her a cup of hot chocolate. Steve watched her with concern, exchanging a glance with Sam, because no one had ever seen her this frazzled.  
‘Said what?’  
‘Clint’s going to propose.’ There was a stunned silence and then Bucky’s laughter from the kitchen. He came out still wearing his snowflake-patterned oven mitts.  
‘Something funny?’ Natasha’s voice had an anxious edge to it.  
‘Nope.’  
She narrowed her eyes, watching his expression closely. ‘You knew.’  
Bucky grinned, part of his hair that wasn’t tied up falling over his eyes. ‘Who do you think told Tony?’ Steve and Sam laughed and Nat assumed an indifferent expression.  
‘You’re gonna say yes though, right?’ Sam asked, eyebrows knitting together at her crossed arms and hard eyes.  
‘I wasn’t meant to say yes.’ She answered, her hand diving into her coat pocket. Just as Sam, Steve and Bucky began to protest and validate their love, Nat cut them off. ‘He was.’ And she opened the box she had pulled out of her coat to show them a silver band, and then there was a proper moment of absolute silence, the ding of the oven timer unheard as the three of them stared at the ex-Russian assassin who had sworn in front of all of them at some point that she never wanted love.  
‘Don’t all talk at once.’ Nat raised an eyebrow at them, putting the box on the coffee table and crossing her arms again coolly.  
‘Well, at least we got a wedding to look forward to.’ Sam grinned as Bucky laughed and offered a shrug to Natasha, putting his mitted hands in the air in an I-don’t-know kind of way as he walked to the kitchen, Sam following.  
‘I’m assuming you knew as well?’ Nat asked dryly.  
Steve shrugged. ‘Bucky hinted. I guessed.’ There was a pause. ‘You and Clint married, huh?’ He waited until he saw Nat’s shoulders drop slightly, her expression tired of being tense, before he observed, ‘he’s changed you,’ with a knowing smile, watching as her wide eyes betrayed her feelings. She allowed a small smile to creep across her face before raising an eyebrow at him and twisting her mouth into a smirk.  
‘Easy, Rogers.’ She looked to Bucky in the kitchen, taking out a tray of cookies from the oven, oblivious that the conversation had turned to him. ‘You can’t exactly narrate from a third person point of view about love changing you.’  
Steve shook his head, grinning. ‘Alright, Romanoff.’ His hands were up in mock surrender just as Bucky’s had been. A few minutes later, Nat and Sam were off setting up the living room with decorations while Steve and Bucky iced the cookies in the kitchen. The old radio plugged in where the kettle would be was playing carols at a low volume, breaking the silence between them that didn’t need to be filled. It was a benefit of knowing someone all your life, Steve decided as he looked up at Bucky concentrating on spreading pale green icing on a gingerbread star, that existing in quiet with them was better than existing in noise alone. That they knew each other so well that they worked together seamlessly, when they were doing mundane things like baking for Christmas or dangerous things like fighting alongside each other, sharing a shield.  
He watched Bucky with small smile, hardly believing that this was the same Bucky that turned up to the Avengers headquarters years ago, shivering from rain and black shadows under his eyes. His metal arm worked like a part of him now because he had accepted it to be, his eyes never dark from lack of sleep, his body healthy, properly taken care of.  
‘You guys almost done?’ Sam’s voice came from the hallway. ‘We could use some help with these wires.’ Bucky looked up, catching Steve’s eyes on him and smiled, walking past him and picking up a Santa hat, fitting it onto Steve’s head as they walked out of the kitchen. Laughing, Steve grabbed the red nose hanging from the hook on the front door and placed it on Bucky’s nose, and for a second, it felt just like it did over seventy years ago. And it was moments like this that made them both realise how easily it could all be taken away, because it had been before. They didn’t say anything, but their gazes said enough, and the small kiss Bucky placed on Steve’s cheek said the rest.

Tony and Pepper arrived first, a bottle of wine in hand, followed by Thor, who had insisted on bringing a barrel of Asgardian liquor, no-one bothering to question how it was obtained. After a while everyone was settled in, grabbing plates and passing around food, the apartment filled with chatter and laughter so that the only time the carols on the radio could be heard was when everyone was eating. And after their late lunch, Tony pulled out a wrapped box and threw it to Rhodey.  
‘Happy Secret Santa, buddy.’   
And then everyone was taking out gifts and exchanging cards, thanking each other and laughing as they read the messages inside.  
‘Tell me you like it.’ Pepper was wincing as Steve unwrapped his present, watching his expression avidly.  
‘Pepper! You didn’t have to, thank you!’ Steve looked at the heap of old records Pepper had put together in a box for him.  
‘I just thought, you’ve been so busy with the avengers initiative, and you probably haven’t had time to – ’  
‘That’s it, he loves it, I told you he would.’ Tony interrupted them, grinning at the scowl Pepper threw him. Sam ran over to them, punching Tony on the way past with a huge green arm, and Steve looked to Bruce who was shaking his head and trying not to smile.  
Wanda was hugging Natasha, thanking her for the leather gloves and Pietro was a blur around the room, breaking in his new sneakers and nearly running into someone every few seconds.  
Steve looked to Bucky, who was thanking Thor for his gift, and then to Nat, who had turned to eye him with sharp eyes. Steve gave her an encouraging nod and she smirked at him, turning away.

It was about an hour later, when most of them had a bit too much to drink, and there were shreds of wrapping paper scattered across the floor, that Clint stood up and Bucky hurried to the kitchen to turn the radio off. The sudden absence of the carols got everyone’s attention, and, head by head, they all turned to see Clint grab Natasha by the hand, say a few soft things to her and then get down on one knee. By the time he had asked, ‘will you marry me?’ it was dead silent, but only for a second, because Nat split into a grin and said ‘yes’ in a voice Steve rarely heard her use, and then everyone was cheering and clapping them on the back and raising champagne glasses. It all moved so quickly that it was half an hour later that Steve could get Nat alone, cornering her in the kitchen where she was tuning the radio, to give her a hug.  
‘Engaged, huh?’  
Pietro sped past the kitchen, significantly slower than usual and singing along to the carols, his words slurring together, his accent even more obvious. ‘It’s over for sure.’ He called as he ran past.  
The corner of Nat’s mouth curled into a smile before turning back to Steve. ‘Guess so.’  
‘You didn’t tell him that you were gonna propose?’  
She tilted her head. ‘I thought that maybe someone else could use that ring.’  
Steve frowned slightly. Natasha wasn’t usually blatant with her intentions, but she rarely made no sense.  
‘What do you –’  
But she was taking out the velvet box from her coat and pushing it into Steve’s hands before he could finish. ‘Give it to him.’  
Steve looked up to her with wide eyes. He had always wanted to marry Bucky. When things got hard, it would be the thought of being with Bucky for the rest of his life that would be the thing that got him through. And Steve never thought that it would be an actual possibility, to marry him, but here they were, and there was nothing, finally nothing, standing in their way.  
‘I thought of you two when I bought it,’ Nat said, closing Steve’s hands around the box and dropping hers, ‘how you get another chance and how we’re lucky enough to even have one. Give it to him.’  
And Steve couldn’t say a thing, but Nat seemed to understand. She grinned at him before turning to go back to the living room, calling to him over her shoulder, ‘better pop the question before Bucky gets the idea first, I’m not sure there’s anyone else you can give the ring to.’   
Steve laughed, placing the soft box in his pocket and followed her out to see Tony trying, drunkenly, to catch Pietro as he sped in circles around him, Wanda and Thor falling over each other in laughter as Sam joined in, punching the air Pietro had unsettled. He fell onto the couch next to Bucky, and the instant feeling of Bucky’s hand finding his made him think that he could forget all their moments before, as long as it meant he’d have new ones to remember.

By the time everyone had left, it was well past four in the morning. Steve jumped straight into bed, Bucky following him in a beat, the lights from outside their apartment making everything glow so that when Steve looked at Bucky, his skin seemed like molten gold.   
Bucky leaned in, grinning despite his tiredness, brushing his lips softly across Steve’s.   
‘Merry Christmas, Stevie.’  
‘Merry Christmas, Buck.’ He leaned in so their foreheads were touching, so close that his stomach twisted with contentment. ‘You still make me shaky.’  
Bucky let out a soft laugh. ‘You still make my heart pound.’  
And when they broke apart, Steve looked to Bucky’s soft lips, to his body that was hardened but not worn, to the eyes that knew him, that were the exact same shade as they had been all those years ago when they would live in their tiny apartment and hold hands in dark movies and kiss in back alleys and love and love and love, and Steve could almost hear the golden lights outside telling him what they couldn’t years before. They were telling him that he and Bucky had a second chance. They were telling him not to waste it.


End file.
